Saika Takanada
by Kirorokat
Summary: After moving to Karakura with her mother, Saika meets some interesting characters and discovers she's not the only one that can see ghosts, an ability stemming from her dead father. But what other abilities might she have inherited at birth? IchigoxOC later. Slow, sporadic updates. M for language.
1. Chapter 1

Hey all! First off, this starts off before Rukia shows up. Like before the second trimester, in school terms. Don't expect this to be super fast-paced. Saika isn't going to meet every character in the first chapter, and even though there's gonna be an IchigoxOC pairing, they aren't gonna start making out by the end of the second chapter. I will be keeping the Canon Characters as IC as I can, but if you happen to notice any OoC-ness please let me know!

Disclaimer: Fuck your disclaimer. This SITE is called fanfiction, we all know nobody owns anything except our OCs.

This is the new, edited chapter.

I stepped out of the taxi and walked around to grab my stuff out of the trunk. My mother and I had just moved to Japan and arrived at Karakura Town after leaving Tokyo Airport. Today, Mom was wearing off-white jeans that flared out a bit around the feet with a blouse that was an abstract mix of browns over a dark brown. She also wore some gold bangles on one wrist and medium-brown, sandal-like pumps with cork soles instead of a tiny little stiletto heel. I wore a gray tank, black cargo pants, and sneakers, with a studded leather cuff-let on one wrist and a watch on the other.

"Wow!" Mom exclaimed, looked forward in excitement, "It's such a lovely day! Saika-chan, we should have a picnic!"

"Right, sure," I replied sarcastically, dragging both of our luggage out of the taxi's trunk, "Right after we finish unpacking our stuff and arranging the furniture. I'm sure we'll get done in time to make the bentos and discover a suitable place to have it."

Mom looked at me with a dead-pan look on her face. "You're such a buzz-kill, you know that?"

I smirked. "Sorry to be the voice of reason, Mom." I dropped my mom's crap as soon as I hauled it out of the trunk. I swear she brought everything except the kitchen sink with her! Me? I had my backpack (containing my laptop, camera, and some books), my small carry-on bag (full of books and manga), and a large duffel back stuffed with all of my clothes. Noticing I actually had a free hand, I decided to be nice and grab one of her bags, too.

"Saika-chan, you're so strong being able to carry all of that at once!" I knew better than to take that as a compliment. "Waaaah!" she suddenly bawled dramatically, rubbing her eyes, "Why can't I have a cute daughter who doesn't pick fights like a yankee and likes shopping and make-up and cute things like thaaaat?" See, told you. Although, for the record, I normally wasn't the one picking fights, just finishing them. I walked up to the door to our new place and dropped my mom's bag on the step as a dug for the keys. Finding them, I left my mother to wallow in her self-pity as I entered the threshold, taking in my new surroundings.

I liked the place. Downstairs there was a small kitchen, a living room suitable for two people, a half bathroom and a closet. Upstairs consisted of two bedrooms and another bathroom, this one with a tub and shower.

"I call first dibs on the bedrooms!" I yelled over my shoulder, and went into the room closest to the stairs. I left the larger master bedroom for my mom, since she had more stuff than me and it had an extra window. Hey, I could be a brat sometimes, but I wasn't totally selfish... Also, my room had the fire escape attached to the window, and this was preferable for two reasons. One: It made it easier to sneak out when I wanted to. And no, not to go meet boys... Two: I wasn't familiar with the neighborhood, so if there were gonna be any creeps tryin' to sneak in through a window, it was going to be through mine. I had weapons, guts, and a helluva lot more fighting experience than my mom. She also slept like the dead no matter what. Since the furniture had yet to arrive I simply dropped my crap in the middle of the floor and walked out.

"How do you like the new place, Sweetie?"

"It's not bad," I replied.

"I'm glad then," she answered, and proceeded taking her things to her room. She knew which one I took already.

I'll bet your wondering why we moved, right? And where we're from? I'll keep it short for you; we're from the States, my mom was a nurse, decided to move to Japan -where my dad was from- and took a job teaching English. Thanks to Dad, we were both fluent in Japanese, so I didn't feel like a total fish out of water. I heard a noise outside and, looking out the open door, saw a moving truck park itself in front of the house.

"Oi, Mom! The rest of our crap's here!"

"Saika, stop talking like such a yankee!" she called back, coming down the stairs in a slight pout. We were total opposites, my mom and I. She liked cute clothes, fashion, romance novels, and almost never used slang, let alone swore. I liked comfortable clothes, food, shonen manga, almost always spoke slang to some degree or another, and didn't have a problem throwing a swear word into a sentence that needed it. She had long, wavy brown hair and pretty green eyes; I had semi-long black hair that was straight and ruggedly cut and blue eyes, courtesy of my dad.

Mom talked to one of the guys from the moving truck, and shortly after that they were hauling stuff in. Being bored with nothing better to do, I pitched in and started carrying boxes in. There weren't very many; some dishes and kitchen utensils, towels, and blankets. I stuffed them in the kitchen for the moment and went to find Mom, who was outside telling the guys where to put the furniture she had bought online.

"Hey," I said, "I'm gonna explore town for a bit, okay?" I took a map out of one of my pockets and waved it at her, as if to say 'And I won't get lost.' Not that I really needed the map; I have a good sense of direction.

"Wait, what if the men don't put your furniture where you want it?"

"Then I'll just move it," was my blunt reply, "It ain't that heavy."

"So not cute!" she exclaimed, pouting, "But fine. Just be back before your curfew, alright?"

~A short time later~

So far, my exploration of Karakura had been uneventful but still enjoyable. I found a residential neighborhood but avoided it; houses were houses, I didn't care what every single one looked like. I was more interested in finding the shops and arcades, stuff that could amuse me.

'_Well,_' I thought, looking up thoughtfully, '_I suppose houses would be amusing if I was scoping them out._' However, me not being a burglar, this wasn't the case.

Shortly, though, I came across a place with a rather large front yard. Well, sort of a yard; it was mostly dirt actually, with a paved path leading to the door. There was a sign above the entrance.

"Urahara Shop," I read aloud, curious. The place gave of a different vibe from all the other shops and whatnot. _'Could have something to do with its more traditional architecture, though.'_ Being the curious, inquisitive, and sometimes rather impulsive person that I am, I decided to investigate this Urahara Shop and started walking up toward the entrance. It was tiny compared to the buildings around it, and there was a small delivery van to the left side. The (awesome) sliding doors were wide open, and there was a guy sitting casually at the entrance waving a fan at himself. He wore a long, dark brownish-green jacket over a green, yukata-like shirt, and green pants with wooden sandals that looked like a pain in the ass to walk in. His hair was a light blond color. And he had a hat; green and white stripes. That was a cool hat. I'd steal it if I knew him better.

"Ah~!" he exclaimed happily, waving at me with aforementioned fan, "A customer? Welcome to the Urahara Shop."

My first impression? I liked him. He had a laid-back, jovial attitude. "Thanks," I replied, approaching him. "So, uh, what do you sell here?"

The man stood as I approached. "Hm?" he hummed, thoughtful. He had a really expressive face. Then he smiled again, "Ah, you must be new here! I didn't recognize you. Come in, come in!" At this he gestured with his hands a motion that almost looked like "shoo, shoo!". Despite his height (he was like six feet or something) he didn't have an overbearing presence like a lot of other really tall people could. Walking in, I found that there was a pretty diverse selection of things being sold.

"Whoa," I blurted, standing there and looking around. I probably looked stupid but hey, I don't think this guy was judging much. Immediately, the goodies section of the store caught my eye; I hadn't eaten in forever and the prices I had glanced at seemed really good.

"Let me know if I can help you with anything, Miss!" I looked up to see him take up a position behind the cash register, sitting on a stool. I sent him a smile to show I had heard him and continued looking around the store. Like I said, there was a little bit of everything in there, and since I didn't have much from the move, I decided to pick myself up some things. I had some cash on me from doing errands for neighbors back in the States that I had converted to Yen when we left. Snagging a hand basket, I grabbed a toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, and a hairbrush. Then, I went to find lunch. There were a lot of candies and sweet snacks, but there were some others as well. I grabbed a couple onigiri, a pack of dango with the brown sauce, and a Japanese-style pop. You know, the ones with the marble on the top? Yeah, just 'cause they're cool like that.

"Hey, is it alright if I hang out here while I eat this?"

Cool-Hat Guy looked at me as I finished setting my stuff on the little counter, again with that thoughtful look on his face. "I don't see why not!"

"Thanks."

After I paid for my things, I stepped back outside and to the side of the door, so I wouldn't be in the way, and plopped down on the pavement.

"Ittadakimasu!"

In case you don't know, here are some definitions.

**Onigiri: **riceball, usually has some sort of filling, and at least a thick strip of nori (dried seaweed) on it to allow one to hold it without rice sticking to their fingers. The onigiri sold in convenience stores, however, are triangular and completely encased in nori, most likely to prevent the wrapper from sticking. They taste delicious, by the way.  
><strong>Dango: <strong>small, round balls of mochi (chewy substance made with rice flour), usually sold three or four on a skewer. Can sometimes be sweet, but in the case of the story, the dango gets the flavor from the brown sauce.  
><strong>Ittadakimasu: <strong>this is an expression used when someone is about to eat. Something along the lines of bon appettit.**  
>Yankee: <strong>a term used in Japan to refer to a girl that is tomboyish or a punk.


	2. Chapter 2

Woot! Chapter two is finally up! Everyone, will warn you now that this will probably not be one of these stories that progress quickly.

This is the (mildly) edited new chapter.

**Chapter 2**

As I sat there, munching an onigiri and minding my own business while watching the clouds float by, this kid with a broom showed up. He had red hair and angry looking eyes, and as he was sweeping he noticed me and looked up. The only acknowledgement I gave him was to blink and take another bite of my lunch.

"Hey!" he shouted, pointing an accusing finger at me. "No loitering! Get lost!"

Oh, no he didn't! "Excuse me, you little brat, but I got _permission _to sit here!"

"Oh yeah? By who?"

"Cool-Hat Guy!"

"What?"

I jerked my thumb over my shoulder, "That gu-!" Only to have it crash into something. Looking up, aforementioned Cool-Hat Guy was standing almost right next to me. The something my thumb had been unexpectedly introduced to happened to be his shin. "Whoa, ninja status."

"Jinta!" he chided, smile gone but still not sounding completely serious, "That's no way to treat our customer! Please apologize."

The Jinta brat grumbled a bit, then looked at me. "Sorry," he muttered, then stalked off to, I assumed, sweep something. Where was a fricking rock when I needed one?

"Sorry about that, Miss."

"It's okay," I replied, flexing my thumb, "I'm sorry for smacking you in the shin."

He laughed, whipped out his white paper fan, and sat down next to me. Translated: "Don't worry about it!" I think.

"So, judging from how you handled the kid, you're Urahara-san, right?"

"Yep!"

I put the now empty riceball wrapper in my pocket and opened the small pack of dango. As I did, I happened to look up and see a black cat approaching the store.

"Ah!" Urahara exclaimed, "Yoruichi-san! Welcome back!" He waved his fan as he had done to me.

"So that's your cat?" I asked, watching the creature.

"No, she just lives and eats here."

I twitched. Smart-ass. I continued watching her, though; something about the cat just seemed... Off, I guess. I pushed that thought to the side, however, and decided to make friends. I was an animal lover, after all. Breaking off a chunk of the Styrofoam container for the dango, I took one of the chewy balls of messy goodness and plopped it onto the improvised plate, then set it on the ground in front of me.

"Yoruichi, huh?" I asked, talking more to the cat than Cool-Hat Guy. Yes, I'm still gonna call him that. "Cool name, kitty."

Yoruichi looked at me, flicked her tail, and approached the peace offering. Apparently, the cat was gonna size me up, too, because she just stared at me as she bowed her head to eat. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised; I know animals are quite sensitive to spiritual things and whatnot that normal people are unaware of, so maybe they can tell when someone can pick up on that kind of thing.

What's that? What am I talking about? I guess I forgot to mention it earlier. My bad.

I see dead people. You know, ghosts and shit like that.

Did I mention that having a cat stare at you is kind of creepy? It is. Especially when you can tell it's not an ordinary cat, and when it seems like it's looking at you as if it _knows _something. So, I did the first thing that came to my mind; I stared right back with an air of "Oh yeah? Well I know about you, too!" Even though I kinda didn't... Mostly. But I wasn't about to just sit there and whimper about being stared down by a cat!

After quickly finishing the dango ball, Yoruichi licked her chops and turned her gaze to Urahara. A look passed between them -that sounds so weird since I'm talking about a cat like that- and the black feline turned and walked into the shop.

'Weird...' I thought, and started eating again. Yeah, the meeting with the kitty had weirded me out a bit and I wasn't expecting Urahara to be a cat whisperer, but I still didn't feel that any harm was gonna come my way for staying there, so I wasn't in a big rush to leave. On the contrary, I liked weird stuff, so there. "I think I'll be shopping here more often."

Cool-Hat Guy laughed.

After lunch I walked back home. After looking at the map briefly, I discovered that I lived in the Sakurabashii district.

"Oh!" Mom exclaimed, seeing I had some stuff with me when I walked through the door. "You found the supermarket?"

"Um... No?"

"It's just across the train tracks Sai-chan, how could you miss it?"

"Maybe because I went the other way?"

She sighed and told me to go arrange my room to how I wanted it. I hopped up the stairs three at a time and opened the door. The bed was still dismantled and leaning against the wall, as was a tall black bookshelf. In the middle of the room was a simple black desk with a couple drawers, a nightstand, and my mini-fridge. Yes, I had a mini fridge; it was pretty much the only thing I had shipped over from the States, and I had insisted on paying for it myself. Which turned out to be a mistake 'cause I had to sell a kidney to do it...

Just kidding, but it was still expensive as hell.

Anyway, after a while I stood back and admired my handy-work. The bookshelf was to the right of the window. Thank God it was one of those cheap, easy-to-assemble ones, too, 'cause I'm not exactly good at puttin' stuff together. My bed -which I also assembled all by myself thank you- was to the left of the window with the head board toward the window. The nightstand was at the foot of the bed, and the writing desk was situated near the wall the door was on, except to where my back would be against the wall when sitting at it. Lastly, the fridge was in my closet, because whoever built this place was a genius and put a socket in there. Fricking awesome!

"Saika-chan, are you done yet?" my mother called from downstairs.

"Yeah!" I replied, leaving my room and walking down to the first floor. I found Mom in the kitchen, cutting stuff up or dinner. From the looks of things, it was gonna be curry. I loved curry, any kind of it, as long as it wasn't spicy. "Want help with anything?"

"Not with this, but get some money from my purse and go get yourself a bed set, would you? I was going to get one for you as a present, but didn't know what you would like. Since I have to go see my new boss tomorrow, I don't know if I'll have time to take you shopping."

I looked at her. "Thanks, but you know, I could just use the blankets we brought."

She tossed me a look over her shoulder. "We only brought two with us, and those are spares for when it gets colder. What would you expect me to do if I needed another blanket during the winter, take one from you?"

Seeing her point, I grabbed her purse off the counter and rummaged around in it, getting what I needed. "Alright, I'm heading out!"

"Do you know where you're even going?"

"Across the train tracks?"

"Yes, but specifically?"

"It's a small town, Mom, can't be that easy to miss."

"But what if you do miss it?"

"Hopefully I'll notice the signs telling me I'm about to leave town so I know when to turn around." At this I heard a distinctive, worried choking noise from her and laughed. "Bye!" With that, I sprung out the door and was on my merry way toward the adventure of a lifetime. Shopping.

Ah, and here's chapter two. Hope y'all liked it! I also hope y'all have a good imagination, because with my drawing skills being equivalent to those of a blind warthog I have no pictures of Saika for you to refer to. Also, thanks for the follows and review!


	3. Chapter 3

Woot, chapter 3 is finally up! Sorry it took so damn long, in all honesty I was just not feeling too motivated to write.

This is the edited new chapter.

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><p>After I left my house I found myself wandering in what I hoped was the general direction of the shopping district. Eventually, I found myself at the edge of a river. Looking around, I saw what I was pretty sure a bridge up a little ways in the distance, and there was a guy approaching it.<p>

"Sweet!" I said, fist pumping, "Someone to give me directions!" Yeah, so I left (forgot) my map at home, bite me. I started toward the guy at a jog. "Hey! Excuse me, could you tell me where the shopping district is?"

"Me?" he asked, pointing to himself when I got within speaking distance.

"Yep!" I replied, deciding that a smart-ass remark about how he and I were the only ones there probably wouldn't be good for gaining favors. The guy smiled and replied, "Sure! I'm heading that way, I can lead you partly there."

I gave him a closer look. He was tall, like six-foot or something like that, and was wearing a black, long-sleeved button-up shirt with blue jeans. His hair was black and spikey, and he had some thin facial hair going on. His brown eyes were friendly, laid-back, and generally fun-loving. Most importantly, I wasn't getting any creeper vibes from him.

"Okay!" I agreed, "Thanks!"

As we crossed the bridge the guy looked over at me and asked, "You know, I can't remember seeing you around here before. Are you new to town?"

"Yeah," I replied, "My mom and I just moved here yesterday, so I'm going out to shop for my school uniform and other things."

"School?" he muttered, then beamed, "So you're in high school, huh? Maybe you'll meet my son! He could use some more friends…"

I laughed. "I'm sure he's got lots of friends!" _'That's the right thing to say, right?'_ "Besides, I'm not very good at getting along with other people."

"What?" he exclaimed, looking shocked and striking a weird kinda pose, "You seem like such a nice girl! I can't believe it!"

"It's fine," I said, trying my best to suppress the maniacal laughter threatening to burst out of my mouth at being called a 'nice girl', "I'm not a big people person." Then, before much more could be said, the guy announced we had reached his house, and I looked up. "A clinic?"

"Yep!" he announced, smiling.

"So you're the owner of this place then?"

"That's right," he replied, looking up at it fondly, "We live upstairs, and the clinic is on the ground floor."

"We?" I asked, and he explained he lived with his three children.

"Oh, I should introduce you to them!" he exclaimed, suddenly beaming, and I immediately knew he was one of those doting fathers. Before I could say anything he dashed inside, leaving me to stand in the middle of the sidewalk feeling awkward. Just as I was starting to get distracted by a passing butterfly Kurosaki-san –I assumed he was Kurosaki, given the clinic's name- reappeared with a young girl in tow. "Sorry," he said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "Yuzu's the only one here right now."

I looked at the girl –presumably Yuzu- and gave a small smile as I bowed. "Nice t' meet you," I said, bowing slightly, "I'm Takanada, Saika."

"Kurosaki, Yuzu!" she chimed, bowing as well, "Nice to meet you!" She wore a pink t-shirt with jean capris, and her short, light brown hair was parted heavily to one side and held back with a strawberry barrette. She also wore a yellow apron, and I figured she must've been baking or something 'cause there were some flour splotches on it. The smell wafting out from the house might've been a tip-off, too.

"What'cha making?" I asked, sniffing the air and practically drooling.

Yuzu smiled warmly as she replied, "Chocolate chip cookies. I found the recipe online and wanted to try it."

Kurosaki-san wrapped an arm around her shoulders and beamed proudly. "Yuzu's our little chef, we'd probably starve without her!" Then he held up a fist and added through tears of…pride, joy? "Daddy's so proud!"

An awkward laugh escaped my lips before I turned my attention to her. "Oh, hey, my mom told me a secret about makin' those. If you add a little bit of molasses to the batter, they come out amazing!"

"Really?" she asked, eyes curious.

"Yep! I've never had chocolate chip cookies that could beat my mom's! Oh, but don't tell her I told you," I muttered, dead-panning, "She'd kill me. Said it was a secret or somethin'." Yuzu giggled and agreed to my condition before excusing herself to check on the batch in the oven.

"Oh!" Kurosaki-san exclaimed, "That's right, directions to the shopping district." He pointed down the street and continued, "Just keep going straight that way and you'll walk right into it."

"Sweet, thanks!"

A short time later I found myself in what could only be the shopping district, ogling all the different stuff the stores were selling, oohing over the bright arcades with spunky music, and drooling over all the snack vendors. However, I was a good girl and managed to restrain myself; it was my mom's cash I was spending now, so I wasn't about to splurge. After a while I found a department store, and went in to buy myself cheap comforter set. After that, I had to ask around a bit to find the place that sold school uniforms. Walking in, I stared longingly at the boys' uniforms, but threats of groundation and other methods of making my life Hell from my mom prevented me from going for them. Instead, sulking, I proceeded to find skirts and blouses my size. Thanking God they were grey and white instead of some ugly-ass baby blue or pink, I paid for my crap and walked out the door, ruffling through the bags to grab my secret purchase.

_**Thump!**_

Stumbling a bit, I looked over to see a girl on the ground; she'd walked into me as I left the store. How the fuck someone gets knocked down hitting something at walking speed, I don't know.

"Crap, I'm sorry, are you okay?" I asked, offering a hand.

"Y-yeah," she stammered, accepting it and, with my help, standing. Then she bowed. "I'm sorry! I should have been paying more attention!"

Uncomfortable with how formal she was being, I waved a hand dismissively. "Nah, it was my fault, I was rummaging through my stuff when I walked in front of you. Sorry." The girl looked at me and smiled shyly, and I took in her appearance. She was a few inches shorter than me with long, orange hair and pretty grey eyes. She was wearing jean capris and a pink button up shirt and… holy _shit._ Those _boobs_!

"Ya alright, Inoue?" another girl asked, and I assumed they were friends. This girl had short, spiky black hair and chocolate brown eyes, and was about the same height as her friend. I could tell immediately by the way she carried herself that she was a tomboy, and she wore khaki boyish shorts and a dark blue t-shirt.

"Yes, I'm fine."

"Huh?" the girl hummed, looking at me curiously, "Ya new around here? I've never seen you before."

"Yeah," I replied, "I just got here yesterday and I'm doin' some last-minute school shopping."

"Oh?" Inoue started, seeing part of what was in my bags. She brightened up and exclaimed cheerily, "You're going to our school!" She extended her hand happily and said, "I'm Orihime, Inoue! Nice to meet you!"

"Takanada, Saika," I replied, shaking her hand, "Nice to meet you."

The girl's friend stepped forward for introductions. "Arisawa, Tatsuki." As she had just heard me give my name to her friend, I didn't bother repeating it and instead gave her a small smile. Arisawa then gave me a questioning quirk of an eyebrow as she asked, "Leggings?"

"I _hate_ skirts," I explained, "And my mom would make my life a living Hell if I got the guys' uniform. Leggings make a good compromise, since I can run around and kick-ass if I need to without worryin' about giving the guys a free show." Arisawa snirked.

"Nice."

"Yep," I replied, "Well, again, sorry I crashed into ya guys. I gotta finish my school shopping, so…"

As I turned to leave while throwing a lazy wave over my shoulder, I heard Orihime pipe up, "Say, Takanada-san, since you're new in town and don't know anyone, would you like to shop with us?"

I turned to the orange-haired girl, somewhat surprised. This chick, who acted so formally and perky, and after having been knocked to the ground by me, who was anything but formal, was actually asking me to hand out of her own free will? Not something I was used to, but then again I did hear that people in Japan were a lot nicer than Americans.

"Uh, sure?" I replied, looking at Arisawa to make sure she was cool with me tagging along. She smirked and shrugged her shoulders, so I took that as a yes. With that, my adventure with Orihime, Inoue and Arisawa, Tatsuki began.


	4. Chapter 4

Oookay, so iot's been a super long time since I updated this story, and I apologize to anyone and everyone that had and is still keeping tabs on it. Truth be told, I'm just a lazy SOB (er, DOB?).

Also, as stated at the top of my profile, I'm editing what I had written up for this story because I fucked up my own timeline. Oops.

This is the new and (slightly) edited chapter.

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><p>Shopping with the two girls I had literally bumped into felt more like a guided tour than anything else, what with Orihime spouting an informative monologue on just about everything. I had quickly come to the conclusion that while she was a seemingly kind girl, she was an absolute air-head, and I found her voice annoying as hell; it sounded as if it was ripped right out of a sappy shoujo anime.<p>

Anyway, I finished buying all my school junk like pencils, paper, and a cheap 1-inch three-ringed binder. Apparently, they were shopping for similar items, so they finished at about the same time I did and we said our good-byes and split up. Honestly, and I know this makes me a bitch, I was glad to go; there was only so much of Orihime Inoue I could handle. By now, it was starting to get dark, so I headed home and got there in time to eat dinner while it was still warm. The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful, and a while later I went to bed.

~~Time Lapse~~

It had been a week since Mom and I had arrived in Karakura town, and we had adjusted pretty well. At least, I had, and I'm pretty sure Mom had, too, as I hadn't heard any complaints yet. It was a Sunday, the day before school started, and I was hanging out at the Urahara Shop. Of course I had purchased something to eat (so I wasn't loitering), and Cool-Hat Guy didn't seem to mind my presence, anyway. At the moment, I was sitting on the small patch of pavement in front of the building, watching he clouds float by, seeing if I could discern any shapes in them. So far I'd found a dog and a weird-ass fusion between a horse, a fish, and an elephant. Don't ask. I looked down to grab another milk-flavored Pocky stick from the box sitting next to me and jumped slightly to see Yoruichi sitting there, facing me and watching. As I sat there, unmoving, hand only half-way to the nibbles I craved, the cat's tail twitched in what I swear to God was amusement or something.

"Y'know," I started, placed my hands on the knees of my crossed legs and leaning down to look at her on eye level, "I like animals. I like cats. But –and don't take this the wrong way or anything- you kinda creep me out." The cat blinked and her amusement seemed to grow. "Hey, I'm just speakin' the truth here!" I exclaimed, although not too loudly while making a mock angry-pouty face, "Stop laughing!"

I swear to God if cats could smile, this one did, and the tip of her tail continued to twitch. I continued to stare at her with what I would think was a weird –and only slightly hilarious- look on my face. Not looking away, I slowly reached for my Pocky, drew out two sticks, and stuck one in my mouth. The other I held out to Yoruichi, and speaking around the Pocky –talking with my mouth full, I know, shame on me, whatever- I smirked and said, "I like you, Cat." After a couple seconds of continuing to stare at me and laugh, Yoruichi took the Pocky stick and meandering into the shop.

"She seems to like you, Takanada-chan!"

"Geebus!" I exclaimed, jumping about a foot in the air. How I managed that with my legs crossed, I don't know. I whipped my head around, embarrassed, to see Cool-Hat Guy standing there, looking just as amused as his cat had. I looked sadly at the ground in front of me, where the other half of the Pocky I had in my mouth lay; I had accidently bitten it when I jumped. Quickly, I picked it up, blew on it, and popped it into my mouth.

"You're eating that?" Urahara asked incredulously.

"Thirty-second rule."

"Isn't it supposed to be three seconds?"

"That's for ninnies."

"Hahahaha!"

Not too long after that I left the Urahara Shop and headed back home.

"Hey, Saika, what do you want in your lunch tomorrow?" Mom asked as I stepped in through the door. I closed it and walked into the kitchen where I saw her with a spread of cooking stuff on the counter, as well as two bento boxes; hers, of course, had a background that faded from pink to white with sakura petals and a yellow, Milky Way-like pattern on it with little spots and sparkles painted to look like stars or something. Mine was plain dark red; I planned on decorating it with stickers and stuff later. About two months before we moved from the States, Mom had started studiously cooking Japanese food, and I'll admit I think she got pretty good at it.

"Uh, how about some sweet tamagoyaki*?" I suggested, and she nodded and happily began working. I asked if she wanted help but she said no, so I went upstairs and got my school stuff ready for tomorrow.

~~Next Day~~

I got up a bit earlier than I normally would have to, leaving myself time to show up at school about fifteen minutes earlier than necessary so I could take care of stuff at the front office. Mom said she had pretty much taken care of things last week, but I still needed to pick up my books and schedule, as well as actually find my class. I got dressed in my white shirt and grey blazer, and I untied the cutsey bowtie they expected me to wear and instead wore it around my neck like a small scarf, tying it off on one side so that it kinda resembled a bandana but with less bulk around my neck. The skirt, sadly, I couldn't directly improve on, but at least it wasn't as short as I thought it was gonna be. It actually reached a couple inches past my knees, so it covered up the leggings I wore under it. I left my hair down, grabbed my school crap, and made my way downstairs quietly; Mom's English classes didn't start 'til later so she wasn't up yet. Snagging my bento outta the fridge, I left my house and made my way to Karakura High.

An uneventful walk later I found my way to the main office of the school, where, surprisingly, things went pretty smoothly about getting the rest of my shit together. They had my books ready for me, and the oh-so-nice lady at the desk handed me my class schedule. 'Why can't things be this easy in America?!' I thought bitterly, giving the woman a two-fingered salute in thanks as I left.

I found my classroom easily enough, and walked in only to see a few students in there. Well, I say a few, but actually there was only one. He looked tall, and was skinny with dark, somewhat long hair and square wire-framed glasses. He was sitting at a desk reading a book , and immediately Piccolo from DBZ Abridged flashed through my head, shouting, "NEEEEEEERD!" Suppressing a snicker, I gave a half a wave in response to his nod in acknowledgement when I entered and looked at the chalk board, where our teacher had kindly drawn out the seating chart. Apparently I sat behind some chick named Ichigo; seemed like our teacher was not one for the whole alphabetical order thing. Ichigo's name was spelled differently than "strawberry", but I'd bet my left kidney her friends flipped her shit about it. Well, if she had friends like me, they would, but who knows, they might actually be _nice _people.

After a bit people started filtering in and, since class hadn't started yet, sat in groups chit-chatting with the people they knew. Me? I was content watching, until…

"Ah, Takanada-san!"

Turning, I saw Orihime and Arisawa walking in, and Orihime was waving energetically at me, so I decided to haul my butt out of my seat and say hello. I was just about within comfortable speaking distance when Orihime got jumped by a red-headed chick who proceeded to, right there in front of God and everybody, molest to poor girl while squawkin' about how attractive she was. Arisawa went into a rage, yelling something along the lines of, "Chizuru, get your perverted lesbian hands off of Inoue!"

"The fuck?" I muttered, dead-panning.

"Don't worry, that's normal," someone from behind me said, and I turned to see a guy who was a few inches shorter than me standing there. He had short black hair that kinda tapered on both sides and black eyes. "Are you a friend of Orihime's? She seemed to know you."

"Not really," I replied bluntly, "I just met her and Arisawa yesterday."

"Ah. I'm Kojima, Mizuiro, by the way."

"Takanada, Saika. Nice to meet you."

"MIZUIRO!" someone –a guy- squawked, and with the same dead-pan expression I turned to the door, through which two more guys had walked. The noisy one was a few inches taller than me with brown, slightly upturned hair and brown eyes. "Who's this fair lady you haven't introduced me to?!" Next thing I know is the guy's spouting off crap about beach-parties and dates and whatnot. "Ah, you should come with me t-!"

BAM!

"_**Shut the hell up!**_"

The brunette wailed in pain and clutched at his face with one hand and pointing an accusing finger at me with the other. "How cruel! We only just met! And Ichigo!" At this he whipped his hand to face the he had come in with, "How could you! I'm your friend! And you both did it at the same time! How weird! Traitor!"

I turned to the "Ichigo" person as the brunette continued to cry and pout noisily, already surprised to have heard a masculine voice join mine in yelling at his friend. This guy was tall, like six inches taller than me, with bright orange spikey hair and brown eyes, and a perma-scowl on his face. "Sorry about him," the guy said, rubbing the back of his head, "Name's Kurosaki, Ichigo."

"Takanada, Saika. Wait, Kurosaki? Hmm…I've heard that somewhere…Ah, Kurosaki Clinic! I met your dad and youngest sister!"

"Ah, that's right, I remember Yuzu talking about someone giving her baking tips or something, and Dad spazzing about a new friend at school…"

"He spazzed when I told him that wasn't likely, too."

"Why's that?"

"Dude," I blurted, jerking my thumb in the direction of Kurosaki's bawling friend, "I've been in this town barely a week, this is my first day of school, and I just sent a stranger's face into a desk. That strike you as 'sociable' behavior?"

"Point taken. That's Asano, Keigo, by the way, and he's always like that."

"Noted," I replied, and at that moment the teacher walked in and told us to take our seats. It was at that point, when the ginger sat in front of me, that it sunk into my obviously-not-very-attentive brain that HE was the Ichigo "chick" for whom I had been feeling slight pity for earlier.

I think I did a pretty good job of keeping my snickers unnoticed as class started.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful; I ate lunch in the classroom, teachers came in and prattled on about crap I didn't really care about, and the final bell rang. Since I didn't have much else to do, and Mom wouldn't be getting back from work until later, I decided to head over to the Urahara Shop and hang out. I'd been going over there often the past week and essentially loitering, but I bought stuff and Cool Hat Guy didn't seem to mind so it was okay.

"Aa~h! Takanada-chan!" Urahara exclaimed, waving his fan at me, "Welcome!"

"Hey!" I called, flashing a peace sign.

"I see you survived your first day of school! How was it?"

"I met the last of the Kurosakis and sent his friend's face into a desk," I stated bluntly, "But other than that it was pretty boring."

"Takanada-chan," Urahara started, and I could practically see the anime sweat-drop rolling down his head, "That's… not very lady-like."

"I get that a lot," I replied. Urahara moved to the side of the door so I could enter the store, and immediately I went browsing through the nummy stuff. "Oh, hey, you got a new riceball flavor!" I browsed for a couple more minutes before I got what I usually did; riceball, package of dango in the brown sauce, and a Ramune soda.

"By the way," Urahara started as he rang up my stuff, "I have a new shipment of candy! They're new to the shop, and I was wondering if you'd try one? I think an opinion would be good to have before I threw it on the shelves!" He held up something that looked like a Pez dispenser with a duck head on the top, and on the side it said "Soul Candy".

"Uh, sure?"

"Great!"

I held out my hand, and Urahara pushed down on the duck's head –poor little duck- and out popped a round green candy from the thing's mouth. I threw the candy into my mouth, expecting it to be like a coated chocolate. What I got was a sudden rush as my face was rudely introduced to the floor. **  
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><p>Chapter 4! Woot!<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

Heeeey, Chapter 5! Gotta say, the beginning of this chapter was so much fun to imagine happening in my head. XD

This is the new and (somewhat heavily) edited chapter.

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><p>I. Was. Fucking. PISSED. And I very well made it known, too, with the colorful slew of profanities I screamed at that asshole Urahara while standing next to my body. Well, I recovered from the dizziness I got from the sudden swoosh of what looked and felt like me being thrown outta my body first, then I started screaming.<p>

"You son of a bitch!" I bellowed, pointing at him accusingly, "What the fuck?! You drugged me!"

"Now, now, Takanada-chan, I-"

"And now I'm on the biggest fucking trip of my entire god-damned LIFE! This is all a hallucination, but I don't give a flying rat's ass! I'll just say all this shit again when I wake up, but REALLY?!"

"Takanada-chan, please-"

"Don't you _"chan" _me you weird bastard! You drugged me, and now I'm tripping that I'm standing over my seemingly _dead _body, attached to it with this weird-ass fucking chain. What was that shit, acid or something? You put fucking acid in a PEZ dispenser? Why the hell would you sell that to… Oh my God, you sick bastard!"

Urahara heaved a huge sigh and turned to the black cat sitting on the counter, who was watching everything in what seemed to be extreme amusement. Of course I'd hallucinate about the damn cat, too!

"Yoruichi-san, please help me with this!"

"You're the one that thought it would be more fun to surprise her with this," the cat replied, smiling, "You handle it. I'm quite content watching."

Normally, a talking cat would weird me the hell out, but since I already knew to expect this kinda freaky stuff I kept going. "You're a drug dealer, aren't you?! And now you're gonna corrupt the innocent little kids that come to your shop so you can rake in more cash! Over my dead body!" The irony of that statement didn't strike me until later. "I swear to God, Urahara, when I wake up I'll kick your ass, steal your cool hat, and burn this place to the ground!"

"**Takanada-chan**." I froze; his entire persona seemed to suddenly change and he was almost deadly serious. Acid trip or not, it was kinda scary. Did that make me look like a wuss? Probably. Bite me. "Ah, much better!" he continued, lightening up a bit, "Now, please let me explain, alright?"

Folding my arms and crossing my legs, I sat there and sulked a bit at my situation. "Fine."

"First, you're not hallucinating, because I didn't drug you. I merely separated your soul from your body." I paled, and raised my hand. "Yes?"

"So… I'm dead?"

"Hmm, not quite. Your body is still breathing, and your chain hasn't been disconnected, see?" He tugged the chain a bit to emphasize his point, which hurt my solar plexus, where it was connected to me. I raised my hand again. "Yes?"

"So why did you _almost _kill me?"

"Look down at where your chain connects you to your body," he said, pointing with his cane. Humoring him –or myself, I guess, since I was still convinced this was all a really messed up trip- I looked down; where the chain connected it seemed to disappear into a mass of flames about the size of a volley ball. The chain itself was glowing red a good six inches down, presumably because of the heat of the fire.

"I ain't exactly sure what the hell I'm lookin' at here," I blurted, dead-panning. I suppose there are worse ways to spend an acid trip; I've heard stories, anyway.

"Normal chains don't look like that on normal humans; those flames aren't supposed to be there. You're special~!"

"Joy. So what, you can see my soul chain when I'm still in my body?"

"No, Yoruichi-san and I just sensed something unusual about you," he stated, fanning himself with a smile, "We didn't know what it was, so we decided to try to shed some light on the mystery."

"You're taking this surprisingly well," Yoruichi said suddenly, eyeing me curiously.

"Why the hell would I put much credence into this? This is all just a bunch of crap my brain's comin' up with as it tries to recover from whatever the hell I just ate."

The cat dead-panned. "She still thinks you drugged her…"

~~Two hours later~~

'Kay, so turns out I wasn't tripping on anything. It took Urahara and Yoruichi a bit of time, but they finally convinced me this shit was actually happening. I had, of course, asked a lot of questions; Urahara only answered what he felt like answering. Guess I was on a "need to know only" basis. Nice.

Anyway, I learned that normal Soul Chains are just that; they look like normal metal chains attached to ghosts. Urahara and Yoruichi didn't know why mine involved fire. They explained that it made my reiatsu –spirit energy or what have you- feel different than other normal humans to anyone that was capable of sensing it. I learned that the flames may or may not have something to do with my ability to see ghosts, Urahara wasn't sure yet. They avoided answering me when I asked what other things they compared the feel of my reiatsu to that made them say it was something they didn't know. And they laughed at me when I asked why the hell Yoruichi could talk.

"Maybe I'll show you sometime," had been the cat's answer.

"Right," I said, running a hand through my hair, "Not that this hasn't been a total blast or anything, but I gotta bounce; I need to get home."

"Ah yes, of course! You should be able to just step back into your body."

I did just that and it worked. As soon as I regained physical consciousness the Soul Candy flew out of my mouth and I lifted myself from the floor. Oh, and in case anyone cares, my face hurt like a son of a bitch. You know, because I landed on it. Just before I left, Urahara asked me to stop by his shop tomorrow, saying something about a test on my reiatsu.

"Sure, whatever," I breathed, tossing a lazy wave over my shoulder. I didn't give a proper farewell today; I was still pissed about him tricking me and was plotting my revenge. So if they were butt-hurt about my rudeness, well, they could suck it.

"Welcome home, Saika!" My mom greeted from the living room. I walked in to see her going through papers. "How was your day?"

"I'm exhausted and my face hurts from falling on it," I said in a monotone, "How about yours?"

"My students really seem to like me, and they're a nice bunch. It's so different from being a nurse, though!"

I could tell she was distrated with grading the papers since she didn't freak out about my revelation of clumsiness, which was fine by me.

"Yeah, but you'll do fine. If ya get any trouble makers let me know, I'll beat 'em up for ya."

"Saika!"

"Heh, kidding, kidding!" _'Sorta.'_

"Anyway, dinner's in the fridge, help yourself."

~~Next day~~

My walk to school was uneventful, full of me being cranky because a) it was, in my opinion, a god-awful time in the morning to have woken up, and b) I was still plotting ways to avenge myself against Urahara and Yoruichi. Oh, and let's not forget the beautiful bruise on my face. It was like getting punched right between the eyes, because I now had two black ones and a sporting splash of purple emblazoned on my fucking forehead. Mom was horrified when she saw it this morning and I told her it was from when I fell, which was technically true. Since I don't do make-up, I was going to school looking like I got jumped.

My mood wasn't exactly lifted when I got to school, either, since everyone kept staring at me as I walked through the halls. I wasn't embarrassed so much as annoyed, since I didn't really like all the attention, but that wasn't anything compared to what I walked into when I entered my classroom.

"Holy shit!" Arisawa exclaimed, being the first to see me, "What happened to you?!"

"I fell on my face," I replied monotonously.

"Seriously?" Asano chimed, "Most people kinda, you know, catch themselves or something."

"I wasn't able to use my hands at that moment."

"Ah, Kurosaki-kun!"

Looking up at Orihime's exclamation, I saw that it was indeed Kurosaki that had strolled into the class like he was some kind of bad-ass. I concluded he was trying to keep up some sort of image. He chatted with Kojima for a few seconds, then meandered his way up to his desk, eyes falling on me. Or, more specifically, the aspect of me that had just been the subject of the oh-so-fucking-awesome conversation that had taken place early that morning.

After a few awkward moments of silence, he finally opened his mouth. "What the hell happened to your face?"

For a split second I was tempted –really tempted- to feed him some shit about being jumped by some yakuza members or something, but I honestly wasn't feeling motivated enough to talk that much anymore; I was just annoyed and wanted the day to hurry up and end. "I _fell_," I hissed, teeth clenched, and my tone announced that the entire conversation was over. Ginger didn't seem too pleased with my tone or all that inclined to believe what he probably thought was some shitty cover-up, if the scrunching of his eyebrows was anything to go by, but he nor anyone else got a chance to say anything about it since the starting bell rand. I plopped down in my seat, crossed my arms, and ignored the rest of the world as class started. **  
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><p>So, to anyone that had read the previous Chapter 5 and actually remembers it, you may have noticed the sudden lack of Rukia. This was where I accidentally started fucking up the timeline in that she shouldn't be showing up yet, considering I stated in chapter one that this story is currently taking place before she shows up.<p> 


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